Fairgriound Attraction
by Claira McGarrett
Summary: I wouldn't call this a film or a book or even a TV show but I have to put this unfinished story somewhere.


**FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION**

In the middle of winter a lonely American fairground stands empty, disused and deserted. The fairground has been earmarked for demolition for nearly two years but no one has ever been able to enter and stay on this site long enough due to strange things going on within the grounds.

As the sun sets for another evening a little girl walks through the grounds of this once magnificent fairground. A light breeze whips up behind her as she stops and looks around. She notices a door banging in this breeze that was half off its hinges. She slowly moves towards it and pulls it slightly to allow herself to go inside. The room is dark, damp and cold but she finds solace in this room for this is where the child died in a very mysterious way, not so long ago. She moves further into this room looking around.

The whole room now came to life with the memories of that night the little girl died. She runs to the corner but finds the door locked like she did that night.

"Stop it, stop it! Can't you leave me alone?" She said hiding her head.

"I leave you alone? I'd be happy when you leave me alone!" An adult male voice said as the lights went out and the child focused in on this man moving away to play with one of the games there.

"I'd be glad to. I've told you that before. Ah, look at my dress, you ripped it!" The child said looking at herself.

"I didn't touch you. That's how the cops found you that day, remember? That was a day I'll never forget. This place has never been the same since. I bet that's why they've got that big sign on the gate right now for, all because of you." The man said getting no return for the dime he had just wasted on the machine.

"All because of me? Hey, you died here too remember that, why don't you?" The child said moving towards him pointing.

The man now grabbed her hand and pulled it down.

"I remember it, okay? Every day of this damn miserable non existence, and if you ever point at me like that again I'll." He stopped and looked at her.

"You'll what?"

They stared at one another.

At that moment the room was illuminated again which made the child jump into his arms.

"Don't let him hurt me!"

He pushed her away and looked around.

"It's not the dream. That's outside!"

"Outside? Mum, dad?" She said running out past the man.

The adult appeared outside to grab the child.

"Shut up for once in your afterlife kid! Do they look like your parents?"

They watched two men climb out of a station wagon and look around.

"Doesn't look haunted to me." The driver said closing his door.

"Lets take a look around. You take that side." The passenger said.

"Right. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can get the demolition mob in here."

"Demolition mob? What does he mean?" The child asked moving in to almost touch the adult.

"Trouble! That's what he means. Come on." He said grabbing her hand and pulling her on following one of the men.

They man went to the old Ferris wheel. The two ghosts watched him.

"This is where you."

He grabbed her.

"Shoosh!"

The man now stopped as he realised that he had heard them. He moved around to the area in which the ghosts sat.

"I don't like this." The child said hiding her head in to the adult.

The man now knelt down and came face to face with them.

"Hello."

The child now screamed and ran off.

"Now look what you've done." The adult ghost said.

"Hey, you're the ghosts aren't you supposed to scare us?"

"I would have gotten round to it. Excuse me!" He said then disappeared.

"Hey Jack, get over here, I've found them!"

The adult ghost appeared back in the room the child had died in. She was back in her original space crying.

"Hey!" He said moving forward.

She chose not to look at him.

"Oh, we're going to play that game, are we? Well, okay, I can take a hint. I'll just open this door and let the guys in, ha?"

"No!" She said turning to look at him.

He moved back up to her and knelt down.

The door now opened as the two men walked in shining their flashlights at them.

"There they are!"

The child hid her head in to the adult ghost.

"If you've come to take us away from here I can tell you now, it won't work. People have tried countless times before and failed."

The men walked further up to them.

"Make them go away." The child said starting to cry.

"Hey, isn't that the child that they found murdered here back in the early eighties? Claira, Claira ermm." The man said looking back to his friend.

"Wait a minute, I've got it here, Claira Bray. Found murdered in a disused out-house between the pin ball machines." He said looking up to see the child sitting between the machines looking at them.

"So, who's the guy with her?"

"The kids father, I guess."

The adult ghost jumped up.

"Do I look like her father?"

They stared at him.

He now moved back to Claira and held her.

"If you have the knowledge on the child go back twenty or so years and you might just find me! That Ferris wheel out there."

The man checked his notes.

"Back when the fairground first opened a worker was trapped on the wheel. He died later in hospital of his injuries."

"I died out there, man! Like this kid died in here. Part of the fairground attraction and we will stay part of this attraction forever more.

"Sorry, no!"

"What?"

"This place is being demolished, tomorrow and two old ghosts are not going to stop us." The man said moving out.

The other man looked at them.

"I'm sorry."

They looked at him.

The men now moved back to their car as the breeze blew up again.

"What's going on?"

"Their last stand, get in, they can't hurt us, their dead!"

"That's what you think!" The adult ghost said as a piece of machinery fell on to their car disabling it.

The men looked around.

"Now what do we do?"

"The exit. They can't get out, we can!"

They ran towards the exit and the big gate. It now slammed shut in front of them.

"You don't think I'd let you get away that easily? Scaring a poor innocent kid like that." The adult ghost said appearing in front of them.

"She dead and so are you!"

"They don't have to be."

"What?"

"Our experiment. They could be our test subjects."

"Are you mad, they can't leave this place."

"What are you talking about? Test subjects for what?" Claira said now appearing in front of them.

"We've been working on a theory about turning anti matter back in to matter, to make you whole again."

"Whole again?

"He means so you can touch things like when you were alive, am I right?"

"Exactly! You could be just what we're looking for."

"In return for what? Our home?" The adult ghost said looking at them.

"Hurh?"

"This place. You'll still want to demolish it."

"Maybe not." The other man said walking away.

They looked at him. He now turned back.

"You used to run this place back when it opened, yes?"

"Yes!"

"What's your name again, I didn't quite catch it last time."

"I didn't give you my name, but for what it's worth it's Phil, Phil Forester."

"Nice to meet you Mr Forester, my name is Mike Wood. My able bodied assistant is Jack Hall." The man said holding out his hand. "Oh sorry, you can't shake it, well maybe one day, you will."

Claira now walked back to Phil and rested her head slightly on him.

The man looked around.

"Yes, I think that we can set up a lab in this area. Shouldn't take too much time either, as long as you don't scare away my workmen."

Jack watched as Claira almost sunk in to Phil.

"I don't like this Phil."

"Shut up and stay away from me!"

They watched as Claira disappeared.

"Well, where did she go?" Mike asked looking around.

"Don't worry. When she doesn't like me she runs off to her own space."

"Which is?" Jack asked looking at him.

"Her hut."

"Where she died, of course. Is that the same for you?"

"Hurh?"

"The Ferris wheel. Do you go there at night, to sleep?"

Phil stared at him. "Excuse me." He said then disappeared.

"Well, what's going on there then?" Mike asked.

"Wait! Watch the door."

"What door?"

"The door to where Claira was killed."

It now slowly moved.

"I thought so." He said moving away.

"What? So, he sleeps with her, big deal! Come on, the gates open."

They now walked out of the fairground.

The next day a truck arrived at the gates. Jack and Mike arrived in another car and opened the gates and allowed the truck in.

Claira moved to the window of the hut and looked out through the broken pane.

"Their going to tear this place apart."

Phil now appeared and placed another dime in the pinball machine.

"Did you hear what I just said?" She said turning back.

"The day I don't, I'll know I've reached heaven." He said then sighed and moved up to her and looked out to see the truck. He now looked at Claira looking at him.

Jack moved in to the hut.

"Erm, hi."

Claira now moved behind Phil.

"Could we talk outside, this is Claira's area."

"Sure, family, I understand."

Jack went outside and found Phil waiting for him.

"You don't waste time with the hardcore."

"Ha, oh erm, the truck, no well, Mike is handling that side of the operation. I'm here to, to." He looked back to see Claira trying to listen to their conversation.

"Excuse me for a minute." Phil said moving back to Claira.

"No, no, I'll be good. No, Phil!"

Jack watched the door close in front of her. Phil now went back to Jack.

"We wont be disturbed for a while now."

"You control her dreams too."

Phil looked at him.

"I control nothing."

"How many times a day does she, does she?"

"Does she what? Relive her nightmare?"

"Yes."

"I've got it down to three maybe four times a week."

"How about you?"

Phil stared at him "I wasn't murdered." He said disappearing.

Jack looked around the area he was now left alone to.

A small building now took shape in front of the hut and some equipment was brought in. The engineers left one evening and Claira soon found herself inside this room looking around.

"Everything's so big." She said watching her hand sink past the switch. "Phil?" No reply came so she walked through another door to see a large chamber. "Wow, I'd like to play in this."

"You think that this is a game?" Phil said appearing in front of her.

She stepped back. "Phil?"

"Well, who did you expect? Mummy and daddy?"

Claira now turned round and ran towards the open door only to watch it shut in front of her. She turned round and watched Phil move towards her.

"No, Phil please, I'll be good, I'll be good, please." Claira now sunk into the door and turned tail and headed back to her hut.

Jack opened the door to the hut the next morning as the light shone in to reveal Phil holding Claira as they slept.

"So even ghost's sleep." Mike said behind him.

Phil jumped up and stared at them.

"Dad?" Claira said stirring.

"No!" Phil said turning sharply back to her.

Mike laughed and went out.

Jack watched them.

"Are you finished with the show?" Phil said staring at him.

Jack was now physically pushed outside and the door shut tight in front of him.

"When your ready maybe you'd like to join us!" Jack now walked back to the room as he noticed Phil already in the room staring at him.

"Don't do that again!"

"Why? Doesn't Claira know you sleep with her?"

"She's an innocent kid!"

"So you said before but I don't see the connection, daddy!" Jack said moving past him to check the equipment.

Phil now disappeared.

"Great, just great! A temperamental ghost."

Claira wandered out of the hut and moved over to the Ferris wheel.

"I thought Jack wanted you."

"Since when did anyone want a ghost? Just get out of here Claira, I'm fed up with it all at the moment."

"And you blame me for that?"

"Yeah, you and this whole god damn place." He said trying to hit the gate entrance in front of him and watching his hand glide straight through it.

Claira stared at him then ran off.

He watched her go then looked at the Ferris wheel and slowly disappeared.

Jack turned round to see Phil in front of him.

"Finally. Are you ready now?"

"Why do you want to help us?"

Jack looked at him.

"I told you. We've been working on something and it involves ghost's, you just happen to be one. Where's Claira?" He said looking around.

He stepped forward.

"Just forget about her for the moment. The only thing ghost's are any good for in your books is for us to cause you trouble. The sooner your rid of us the better, correct?"

"So far, yes."

"So, why would you want to help us regain our physical form if you were really going to finally exorcise us from this place?"

Mike now clapped his hands behind him.

"Very clever, these ghost's of yours, Jack. You don't seriously think that we would go out of our way to help you regain your human stature, do you? My men are poised to destroy this place the minute you've been banished from this Earth and your freaky daughter too!"

"Claira?"

She now appeared next to him.

"What's going on?"

"Arh, the family is complete, do it!" Mike said looking at Jack.

A fierce wind now blew around them as all the equipment fell to the floor and started to explode around them.

"Stop this!" Jack said trying to get a foothold.

"Not until what you are doing has been destroyed! You'll pay for trying to destroy us." Phil said allowing the wind to continue.

"I'm not trying to destroy you. I never listened to Mike in the first place." Jack said trying to start the machine.

Phil watched him typing out some codes.

"I don't like this, Phil, help me." Claira said moving in to him.

"No, don't move, give me one more minute, please!"

"Jack! What are you doing? We need to exorcise them, now!" He said grabbing his crucifix and moving towards them.

"Phil, watch out!" Claira said as Mike moved towards them.

"The machine is working!" Jack said checking the computer.

Phil looked down and realised he was leaning back in to a chair. He now picked it up and moved towards Mike and hit him with it. He fell to the floor unconscious.

The wind around them now stopped as quickly as it came.

"Good hit. I don't know what would have happened to you if he would have said any of his words that he had been reciting this morning."

Phil moved to a table and touched it.

"I can feel this. I can touch it!"

Jack now shook his hand.

"Your not even cold. Now that's something I wasn't expecting." He noticed Phil looking at his hand. "Nice feeling ha? After all these years." He added.

"Yeah."

Claira now moved towards them.

"I erm, I've got to clear this place up. Make sure that Mike doesn't come round still in a position to, well maybe that's now impossible. Welcome back." He said then looked at Claira and moved away.

Phil looked at her then took her hand.

"Hey." He said watching her.

"What just happened back there?"

"To tell you the truth kid, I don't know. Somehow and don't ask me how, but we've got our bodies back."

"Hurh, our bodies?" She said looking at him.

Phil placed her hand on the table.

Claira looked at it then pulled her hand away and watched him.

"It's a nice feeling isn't it?"

She shook her head and looked around for the exit and started to run towards it.

"Claira!"

Fortunately, the door was open so she ran out, but the door to her hut was closed and Claira ran straight in to it. The door fell inwards as the hinge finally snapped. A plume of dust now engulfed her and she started to cough and splutter.

Phil ran up behind her and picked her up.

"Take it easy, Claira."

"Take what easy? What, what just happened back there?"

"The door was older than you. That hinge wasn't going to last for much longer. I'll get you a brand new one when we do this place up, ha?"

Claira stared at him.

"When we do this place up? But they want to!"

"Wow, what happened to the door?" Jack said behind them.

Claira now forged forward but Phil stopped her.

"Erm, what's going on?"

"Nothing!"

"Let me at him, Phil."

"Hey, I thought that you would be happy. I gave you your god damn lives back and this is how you re-pay me?"

"She doesn't mean any of this. She'll wake up and realise in a minute, she always does." Phil said pushing her away.

Claira stared at him then adjusted herself.

"I don't believe you! Your, your!"

Phil kept hold of Claira then looked past Jack. "Hey, I've got to try something." He said going out.

"What?" Jack said following.

Claira watched them go.

"The gate. I've never been able to leave before. You know that force thing. Well no, maybe not, but I've got to try it." He said moving to the gate. "Well, here goes." He added and moved past the gate. He was now physically thrown back. "Hey!"

Claira now ran past them and was immediately thrown back into Phil.

"Well, maybe we're not human after all." Phil said looking down at Claira in his arms.

"I'm still stuck here." Claira said looking down.

"Sorry." Jack said moving away.

"I'm still stuck in this stupid fairground with you!" She said pushing Phil away and storming off.

"Well thank you. Hey, for your information that goes both ways. I'm still stuck here with you two!"

Jack watched him.

"At least you're a family."

Phil stopped and looked at him.

"Hurh?"

"I said, you're a family." Jack said patting him on the back and walking away.

By now Mike had recovered from the blow to the head and headed out of the building. Jack was walking back to him.

"What the hell is going on around here?"

"Just get back in to your car!"

"But the ghost's! We have to!"

"We have to nothing. Their not ghosts anymore, as I am sure you know!"

"Banish all yee around thee."

"Do us a favour Mike and banish yourself from this place, ha?" He said leading him to his car.

"I'll be back. You can't stop what has to be done."

"Well, whatever because they'll still be here. They can't leave."

"What?"

"They can't leave. I don't know why. Maybe this place needs them. Maybe they need each other. Who knows, but I don't think anymore magic will work here." He said noticing Phil heading into the hut. "Well, except a little old family magic." Jack said deciding to get in the car with Mike and allowed him to drive out.

The gates now closed behind them.

Claira stared through her usual broken pane of glass at the closed gates in front of the hut she now found solace in. Phil looked at the array of pinball machines around him.

"Damn."

Claira now sighed and looked down.

"What?"

"I haven't got my dime."  
"Hurh?"

"You'd think that they'd let me have my dime wouldn't you?"

"I guess that now your human again you could open this place up and make all the dimes you wanted." She said moving to the makeshift bed and sat down on it.

"Better still, now that I am human." He said kicking it. The dimes now fell out. "Ahaah! You would have thought that they would have emptied these all out when they left." He said grabbing a dime off the floor and placing it in the slot. He looked at the machine. "Well, now what?"

Claira looked at him. She sighed and stood up.

"It's not plugged in."

"Of course it's plugged in Claira, it's worked before!"

"Yes, thanks to your own power. This place hasn't had electricity for over two years." She said pulling out the plug and waving it at him.

He grabbed it from her.

"Clever clogs." He said pushing her back.

She now moved back to her bed and layed down.

He watched her do this and moved in to sit down next to her.

"Isn't there another place that you like to hang out around?"

"Excuse me?"

"Say like the Ferris wheel, where you belong?"

He stared at her.

"Oh I get it. You're trying to get rid of me now, ha?"

"No! I'm just, ah, forget it. Why do I bother anyway?" She said folding her arms and closing her eyes.

Phil looked at her and slowly moved in close to her.

She now jumped up and looked at him.

"What?" He said watching her.

"I can't sleep with you here."

"Can't you?" He said looking at her sheepishly. "All right, I'll take a walk. Maybe the Ferris wheel is more lonely than you tonight." He added, and then went out.

A cold wind now started to whip the leaves up around the open area leading to the big Ferris wheel. Phil stopped as he allowed the leaves to hit him then hit the floor again, only to be picked up by another gust of wind. He now heard a noise behind him and spun round.

Two kids had jumped over the back wall and were moving towards the wheel.

"Hey, are you sure you can get this to work? The place has been empty for years. There's no power in those lights up there."

"Trust me. Besides that Ferris wheel has it's own generator. All it needs is some petrol and a battery, voila." The kid said pulling a battery over the wall. "You got the petrol?" He added looking at his mate.

"Yes." He said grabbing a jerry can.

"Well then, come on."

The kids now moved behind the wheel and pulled out the old generator.

Phil moved closer watching them as he went.

"Okay, you start filling the tank. I'll work on the electrics." The kid said grabbing the wires.

The battery started to spark as the kid hooked up the wires.

"You know, I think that this is going to work!"

"You know, I think that you're in big trouble!" Phil said grabbing them.

"Leg it!" The kid said pushing him away.

Phil laughed and watched them disappear back over the fence. He now looked back to their handy work and then to the wheel.

Claira stirred from her light sleep as she heard the noise of a motor working overtime coming from outside. She looked around realising that Phil was not with her. She now jumped up and ran out of the hut and straight in to him.

"Hey, easy." He said holding her out in front of him.

"Phil?"

"I'm here."

"What's going on?"

He stepped aside to allow Claira to witness the ore inspiring Ferris wheel in all its glory.

"What do you think, ha?"

Claira looked at him then the wheel and moved towards it.

"Where, where did you get the power from?"  
"From two kids who scaled the wall. They wanted to see the wheel lit up, but I guess that their reasons wouldn't have been right, mine are." He said taking her hand and leading her to the gate.

"What are you doing?"

"Owners privilege."

"Hurh?"

"The first ride is yours. I guess I owe it to you." He said opening the gate. "Go on, no fee to pay on this ride. Call it, well, I guess I'll think of something while we're up there."

Claira stared at him then the wheel.

"No! No, I don't want to go."

He looked at her.

"It's okay, I'll be with you."

"No!" She said dodging past him and running back to her hut.

"Claira, Claira!"

Phil now shut the wheel down and went in to the hut where Claira sat in her usual position.

"Stand up!"

"No, leave me alone!"

"I am not going to talk to you while you sit there like, like that night you!" He now turned away.

"Why not? You weren't around that night to help me. Why should I listen to anything you say?" She said hiding her head.

He turned back to stare at her. "How little you know." He said then moved to the pinball machine.

She slightly moved her position to keep him in her view.

He looked back at her and sighed.

"Everything is back the way it was."

"I know, I, I realised that."

"What do you want from me, Claira? You tell me to hang out by the wheel and now I finally have the body to, to do something about getting the wheel up and running you!"

"Because you died there, at the wheel!"

"So, you died here!" He shouted then stopped and looked away. "I'm sorry. That was heartless and callous. My death was an accident, yours." He looked down. "Your right. I was wrong to change things; nothing was ever the same after you came here anyway. I'll, I'll let you get some sleep." He said then went out.

Claira jumped up and moved to the broken window and watched him head back to the wheel. She now looked down to where she had died, as her nightmare started again.

The next morning Jack drove in to the site and looked around.

"What is this? Nobody around to greet me." He said moving towards the wheel.

Phil popped up from behind the generator. Jack now noticed him.

"Phil!"

He looked at him.

"Jack!"

He spun round.

"Are you alone?"

"Aha."

"What, did they take Claira away from you?

"Hurh?"

"Claira? Did the afterlife take her back or something?"

Phil smiled and went back to the generator.

"No, they didn't take her away. She's probably still asleep, we erm, we, ah what's the point! Damn kid, I knew she was trouble the minute I clapped eyes on her."

"Hey, hey easy. What's been going on around here? You're working on the generator to the wheel. You got this thing going?" He said pointing to it.

"I sure did, last night, before." He dropped the spanner and walked away.

Jack walked round to him and stopped him moving away.

"Amongst my many talents I'm also a good listener."

"You got the millennium to waste?"

They headed through the park.

"You know, it would be great if this place could open again for the next season." Jack said looking around.

"It needs a lot of work doing to it. A lot of money too and I can't exactly walk out that gate and go in to a bank and ask for a loan on a dead mans identity now can I?"

"A bit of a problem, yeah. But, you might be able to get yourself a new identity."

"Yeah, how?"

"Leave it to me. I have a few contacts in the trade. How does Mr and Miss Nash sound?"

Phil stopped and looked at him.

"Phil Nash?"

"Claira Nash, now that has a ring to it, don't you think?"

He looked at Jack and moved away.

Jack watched him go then slowly followed.

"What happened between you two last night?"

"She's just a kid! She's so innocent, you know. Anyway, nothing happened between us." He said moving away.

"Your right, she is just a kid, your kid."

"Look, don't lay all this at my feet. I didn't want her to be here. Sometimes I wish I was better off without her."

"But your not. Your better off with her and the same goes for Claira, you need each other, Phil, and she's your daughter!"

"No she isn't, and I don't ever want her to be neither. She's too much of a, she does my head in!"

"For the past twenty or so years you've been stuck in the same groove. Slowly edging forward to make Claira your own and then pulling yourself back because you were both dead and without form that your feelings meant nothing to each other. Now you have a form, you have a life, are you going to waste another twenty years like a broken record?"

Phil stared at him.

Claira awoke from her usual sleeping position and moved out past the machines to head outside.

Jack and Phil now moved around the front back towards the car.

Claira moved over to the car and looked at it.

"Hey Claira." Jack said raising his voice to break Phil out of his concentration.

"Hi." She said stepping away from the car.

"Do you want to take a look inside?"

"Hurh?"

"It has all the mod cons."

"I know what cars are Jack, my parents have one."

"Let me guess, the nineteen eighties, a Ferrari ha? No, no, better still that talking car, erm."

"KITT! You know that car?" Claira said moving forward.

"I sure do. It was a favourite of mine when I was, well a little younger than I am today." He said coughing.

"Oh, yeah, younger, right." She said remembering that she was dead.

"I kind of lean towards the Chevrolet convertible. High driving position, the points on that baby."

"I remember them too. I think they were in the spit Sonia the last time I looked." Jack said trying to raise a laugh out of the situation.

"What are you doing here Jack? Surly not to talk 'old' cars with us 'old' ghosts?" Claira said now moving back towards Phil.

"No, no your right. I was just checking up on you. I thought that the magic would have worn off by now. Seems like I was wrong. It looks like you two are here to stay."

"You bet. This is where I died and this is where I'll stay."

"Don't forget you were also born here."

"Hurh?" Claira said looking at him.

"Right over there in that building."

"Oh you mean, yesterday, well, I guess I have you to thank for that."

"Apology accepted, I think. Listen Phil, what are you going to do around here now that you're human again?"

"Just carry on, I guess."

"But you're human now. You've got to eat, drink, socialize."

"Well, I hadn't really thought about that side of things."

"Look, you two just relax. I will get everything sorted out and that other thing we discussed, there's no rush. You've had over twenty years to think about it already." He said moving to shake his hand then looked at Claira. "See ya later, kid."

They watched him get back in to his car and drive out. The gates closed behind him.

Claira now looked at Phil.

"What was he talking about, twenty years to think about it? Think about what?"

"I have no idea what he was talking about."

Claira slowly followed Phil back to the wheel.

"Are you sure you want to be seen around here with me?"

"It's daylight isn't it? What could possibly happen with the sun up?"

Phil looked at her.

"Oh of course. Things only happen round here in the night. Like accidents, murders!" He said then carried on working with the generator.

"What are you trying to do?" Claira said moving around him.

"I'm trying to set most of this quarter up to the generator. That's how I got it working before."

"Before?"  
"Yes."

"You mean back in the fifties?" She said moving around trying to annoy him.

He watched her.

"Well let me tell you something my girl, the eighties wasn't that much cop either. A talking car indeed." He said carrying on with his work.

"That car would be better than you at, at?" She looked around.

"At what Claira? At what exactly, being a father? Is this what all this is about ha? The fact that while you were being murdered on my front porch that I wasn't in a human form to grab the son of a bitch for killing you?"

Claira stared at him.

"Hasn't it ever occurred to you that if I was human back then and I had saved you from dying that we wouldn't be together now?"

"Good! At least I wouldn't have to put up with your constant nagging morning, noon and night!" Claira said coming almost nose to nose with him.

"Your impossible, do you know that? I think that I would be better off dead, again!"

"They wouldn't give you that satisfaction." She said turning away.

"No but it would give me great satisfaction in murdering you and getting away with it like the guy who killed you did!" He said picking up a monkey wrench.

Claira stared at him then ran off.

He looked down.

"Claira! Claira, I didn't mean it, oh Claira!" He sighed and headed to the hut to find her.

She was back in her original place and crying.

"Claira."

"Leave me alone. You don't care about me, you never have. You watched that man kill me and you didn't do a thing to save me."

"No, but I gave you a home here with me afterwards." He said looking at her.

"A home?"

"Why do you think you stayed here on earth instead of passing over like all the others that die?"

"I don't know. I don't want to talk about it." She said hiding her head.

Phil knelt down to her.

"You stayed on earth because I wouldn't let them take you. I was alone until the day you walked into my life, well afterlife, that is."

"You wouldn't let them take me? I don't understand." She said looking at him.

"Not supposed to. It all happened so fast; I hardly believed it myself at the time. You just lay there staring at me, like you are now. I knelt down to you and I was allowed to touch you, to hold you, just like I am now. I was allowed to keep you. You know, I never really realised it until now how much I really needed you."

Claira allowed Phil to pick her up and carry her out of the hut.

"Daddy."

Phil kissed her then closed his eyes and held his child.

Jack drove back into the fairground the next day and found Claira helping Phil to sort out the lighting.

"Hey, this is starting to look like a fun fair." Jack said moving up to them just as the lights went out. "Ah, I spoke too soon."

"I need some gas. This thing drinks it faster than my Chevy!"

"I could let you have a gallon from my tank then I'll pick some up on my way home."

"If it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble at all." He said grabbing the jerry can and walking back to his car.

Claira followed him back to his car and watched him.

"How are you doing, Claira?" Jack asked looking at her.

"Fine."

"That's nice to hear. Ah, here we go. We'll soon have those lights back on blazing in to the night. Once this town realises that the fair is back in business they'll connect the site up to the main grid and this place will be on the map for years to come."

"Run by two ghosts, though. When the neighbours realise that they'll railroad us out of here, again."  
"Well, they won't need to know that two ghosts own it. I was going to save this till later but, as you've brought the subject up, take a look at these." He said handing her some official documents.

Claira looked at them.

"Birth certificates. These aren't my own, though, who's Claira Nash?"

"You, if you really want to be recognised."

"Hurh?"  
"You've got your life back, why not have a brand new identity to go with it?"

"What about my old one?"

"Claira!" Phil said behind her.

She spun round and looked at him.

"Phil, look at these. Claira Nash, Phil Nash, I don't understand." She said handing them to him.

"I'll keep these. Jack, maybe you shouldn't have shown them to her."

"Sorry, I just thought that."

"I was working on it."

"I don't get you, after last night, I thought, I thought!" She now ran off.

They watched her head back to her hut.

"I'll help you with the car."

Jack looked at him then they carried on.

The generator was soon up and running. Phil looked at the birth certificates.

"I could have a lender over here by the end of the week. Get you into some up to date clothes and we could easily get twenty-five thousand under our belts by the time the new season starts."

"Do you know how long this place took for me to get started back in fifty-nine? Back then I had my whole family around me dipping in to the kitty every minute. I was broke before my first customer walked past this gate."

"Well hopefully as Claira is young she wont need to dip in to as much as they did." Jack said finishing off filling the tank.

Phil looked at him then the hut.

"No, I guess not." He said walking away.

"Where are you going?"  
"Erm, just give me a minute, will you."

"Sure, do you want me to stop this?"

"Yeah, shut it down."

Jack pulled the key out to the generator as the lights slowly faded away.

Phil walked in to the dark unlit hut. The sun was now starting to set and threw Phil's shadow on to the back wall of the hut.

"You know what I'm going to do with these machines when this place re-opens?" He said moving up to them.

"What?" She said now looking at him.

"Set them up at the main gate. A blast from the past, the humble pinball machine." He said looking at her to try and lift her spirits. "Not that I can remember them that well. These things kind of past me by."

"They didn't exactly pass me by. You'll always find me in here, amongst the relics of yesteryear. Like that night he!" She now spun around as she relieved her nightmare again.

Phil now held her.

"Why didn't I leave before he had a chance to close that door? Why didn't I realise, Phil, why?"

"You can't keep blaming yourself for dying. Your still here, with me and I'm never going to let you go." He said kissing her. "We're a family, we can handle this, together."

Some days later Jack had returned with a prospective bank manager who walked around starting to price up the place.

Claira moved to the door of the hut and watched Jack with him.

"Hey, who's the guy in the suit making Jack look all nervous?"

Phil moved forward.

"Jeez, that must be the bank manager he was talking about. How do I look?"

"Look for what?"

"Oh Claira!" He said then went out. "Jack!" He said moving up to them.

"Phil, finally. I thought back there that you was going to leave me to it."

"Not a chance. Erm, who do we have here?"

"The local financier, John Powell. I just thought that I'd finally let him see this place and it's owner."

"A bit short notice, but I guess that there's no time like the present." Phil said stepping forward and holding out his hand. "Philip Nash, how do you do?" He said as John now shook it.

"When Jack came to me with this hair brain scheme of yours Mr Nash my first thought was to turn you down flat, but Jack has worked on me so, here I am." He said opening up his folder and checking a few notes.

"Jack is a good man to have on my team. I believe that we can sell this fairground and have it making a profit by the end of the season."

"The end of this season?

"Yes!"

He now walked away.

Jack looked at Phil then caught up with him. Phil stayed in close as they all walked around.

They now came to the hut where Claira stood by the open doorway.

John looked up from his paperwork.

"What's in there?"

"Erm, old machines. All out of date, I'm afraid, but I intend to fix them up. You know, to entice the over sixties, sort of like the forgotten generation." Phil said moving forward.

Claira watched them go in and slowly stuck in behind them.

"Pretty squalid. It could do with being torn down altogether. Think about putting another machine in this area."

"Another machine? Here?" Claira said stepping forward.

John looked at he.

"Excuse me, you are?"

Phil coughed and moved forward.

"She's my daughter, Claira. She erm, she's kind of gotten used to this area."

"It's just a hut. You can build something else on it." He said moving back out to the sunshine.

Claira jumped in front of them.

"Who do you think you are?"

He stopped and looked at her.

"I believe that I am the person that holds the purse string to your fathers fairground at the moment. Who do you think you are?"

"I'm Claira Bray and if you think that you're going to tear down my hut!"

Phil now grabbed Claira and pulled her out of the way.

"We'll talk about this tonight when we're alone, alright?"

"No, we'll talk about it now, Phil!" Claira said starting up an argument with him.

"Erm John, maybe we could go over to the Ferris wheel!" Jack said raising his voice, which stopped Claira and Phil in their tracks.

"Hurh?" She said moving in close to Phil as he looked on.

They all walked over to the wheel.

"We've managed to get this part up and running but, the sooner we get hooked up to the grid the better, ha Phil?" Jack said looking back.

"Ha, erm yeah, the sooner the better."

"You know, you'd get a better price if you called in the demolition guys."

"No thank you, we've tried that avenue. We think that we can do better for the old place with just a few hundred thousand in the bank."

"It's a bit of a gamble."

"That's this place middle name. She was always a gamble, right from the start." Phil said stepping forward.

John looked at him then Claira hovering about in the background. He made sure Phil noticed that he was looking at her.

"Now that's one thing you could lose for a start. That hut! It's an eye sore."

"Your right, it is an eye sore in more ways that you could ever imagine. I'm working on it, like I hope that you could work on our loan." Phil said looking at him.

"Mr Nash, I will get back to you. Erm, where are you staying?"

"Right here. This is our home.

"But, I didn't see any living quarters around here."  
"Do you need a bed to make this place your home?" Phil said watching him.

"Erm, maybe I should drive you back, ha John?" Jack said pulling him on.

John looked back to Phil and Claira as they reached the gate.

"There's something not quite right about that family."

"Is that so? Well, I hope that it doesn't affect our legal status at present." Jack said watching John get in to his car.

John continued to look back as Jack drove out.

"What did that kid say her name was?"

"Nash, Claira Nash." Jack said looking at him.

"No! I thought it sounded more like Bray, Claira Bray? I seem to remember something about that name."

"John, the family name is Nash. I've known them all my life, check their birth certificates if you don't believe me."

"You know why that place was ear marked for demolition don't you?"

Jack looked away.

"It was reported to be haunted by two people that were murdered there back in the sixties, I think."

Jack shook his head.

"Look, can we concentrate on the money. They could really do with getting hold of that money by the end of this week."

"No one could get on to the site because of those ghosts."

"John, the money!"

"Jack, doesn't it bother you? That place is supposed to be haunted. No one has been on that site in years and suddenly there we were today with two people who we didn't know."

"No, you didn't know. I know that family and I can vouch for them."

"How well do you know them?"

Jack looked at him.

Claira returned back to her hut to find Phil already there waiting for her. She looked at him then moved passed him.

"You made a fool of yourself out there today."

"I made a fool out of myself? How come?"

"By giving away your old name."  
"My old name? How dare you! He was going to destroy this hut. You can't let him do that Phil."  
"And why not?" He said watching her move to her favourite spot.

She looked at him.

"You know why not. This is where I was, you can't destroy it."

"Claira, just because you were murdered here would give me a perfect reason for having this place destroyed the minute the workmen walk in here. There are too many memories around here. If this hut went then maybe so would your nightmares because you'd have nothing to come back to at the end of the day so you wouldn't remember it."

"Why don't you have the workmen tear down the Ferris wheel, Phil? You died there so I seem to remember.

"I wasn't murdered."  
"Exactly!"

He looked at her.

"Oh, I see, that makes all the difference, doesn't it. Your death was a murder mine was an accident. I get to keep my space, the murdered one doesn't, ha?"  
"Something like that, yeah."

"I don't believe you! You should be feeling very humble right now. There are not many ghosts that get the chance to be whole again. In fact, I think that we are the only ones, if I can be so bold in that assumption."

"You, bold? Don't make me laugh, Phil." She said looking away.

They now heard a noise outside. Claira ran to the broken window.

"That's Jack's car, isn't it?" She said looking back.

"Yeah!" He said watching as it crashed through the gate. "What the hell is he playing at?" Phil added going outside.

Jack noticed them and headed for the hut.

"Claira!" Phil said grabbing her and pulling her out of the way.

Jack smashed through the hut and the outer walls fell in around him.

Claira stared at the dust rising in to the air.

Jack opened the door to his now totally mangled car and got out.

Claira struggled to get free from Phil's grasp.

"Let me at him! I'm going to kill him!" She said pushing Phil away.

"Not a chance. He's saved me the money on getting a few workmen in now." Phil said moving up to him and helping him out of the flattened hut.

"Sorry about the gate." He said brushing himself down.

"Sorry about the, what about the hut?" She said pointing.

He looked back.

"What hut? Phil, do you see a hut here?"

"No, just a few pieces of wood, that's all."

Claira stared at him then pushed him away and stormed off.

They watched her go.

"I had to do that."

"Don't apologise, it was coming anyway."  
"John was that close to finding out all about you Phil, about Claira Bray."

Phil stared at him.

"Does that mean we don't get the loan?"

"I'll have to work on him a bit more. Hopefully with this thing out of the way Claira will lighten up enough to put him off the scent."

"You work on John, I'll work on Claira."

"Good luck!"

"Yeah, I'll need it. Hey, how are you going get home?"

"Ah, I'll catch a cab." He said stumbling back out through the main gate.

Phil watched him go then looked around for any sign of Claira.

He moved over to the Ferris wheel and started up the generator. She now popped out from behind it.

"Well, what are you doing behind there?"

"Hiding!"

"From who? Me?" He said checking the generator was working fine."

"If you like. Where's Jack?"

"Gone!"

"Good, we can start on the hut and have it back up again by morning."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, come on, we're wasting time."

"No! Your wasting time even considering trying to rebuild that, that!"

"Go on, finish what you were saying."

"I can't believe this. I'm actually having a conversation with you about this. I am not going there Claira. The hut stays down and you!"

"What about me?"  
"You can start spending your nights here, under the Ferris wheel for all I care. You will never go back to that hut, whatever is left of it and you will stop having those nightmares, trust me."

"Trust you? After what you just allowed to happen back there?"

"Yes." He said moving away.

Claira stayed with him.

"I'll have to try and source out some gas for this soon. We're running low again."  
"Well, you've always got trusty old Jack to help you out, like he did back there when he flattened my!"

"Your death bed?" He said turning back to her.

They now stared at each other for some time.

"Look, Claira." He said looking away and sighing.

She now bolted and ran off.

"Ah, just great!" He added. "Wonderful!" He said holding his arms out by his side as he watched her run off.


End file.
